[uh, fandom-crossing angst?]
Nov. 15th, 2006 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaThis is going to sound a bit weird, but... how do you guys write fanfic? *___*
I was just thinking that as much as I really -wish- I could write non-HP stuff (well, I guess I really 'should' write more original stuff since I -could-, but ignoring that for a moment)... I have severe issues with writing in other fandoms. Even ones I fall in love with that have extremely hot and sympathetic leads (*cough*BLAIR*cough*)
First of all, whether or not I love or know the canon or fanon, I don't get ideas; secondly, no matter how much I love a character, I don't usually feel a sense of 'ownership', like I'm in touch with their voice myself. I mean, I've tried writing a Gundam Wing AU (right before HP, sometime in '02), and it was pretty much a joke-- and that's not to mention my pathetic teenage failure to do anything like a Star Trek fic. The best I could do was write an original (though not actually very original... or good) sci-fi fic that sort of had an Enterprise cameo. Yeah, that was as far as I could go... the starship -.-
My only positive experience was writing in the Peter Pan universe, but even then I don't have 'ideas', just an intimate sort of familiarity and comfort with the 'verse-- but I know lots of fictional 'verses better, and I can't imagine writing them. I dunno if this counts, but my other comfort-zone is fairy-tales-- I can write 'fanfic' to any myth or legend or fairy-tale, regardless of culture or plot or whatever. Funny how that works-- maybe there are just always unifying themes and archetypes obviously at work no matter what tale you pick. In actual fandoms, I'm always painfully aware of their idiosyncracy-- like, how I know nothing about cops, California teenagers or far-future Gundam pilots no matter how much I've seen on TV. I mean, clearly I know nothing about Wizarding English boys in boarding schools either, but somehow the fantastic setting lets me make things up a lot more easily.
(And obviously I could do 'research', but no amount of pure knowledge makes me comfortable enough to 'let go', y'know? I'd just be more aware of everything I need to remember and not screw up. -.-)
With HP, I started out with a character's voice-- Draco's-- that came to me out of the blue (I mean, I had Duo's voice in Gundam Wing, but it was a sort of sad fanon imitation-- this Draco may have been fanon, but he was my fanon, charged with emotion and meaning from the start). The Harry in my head didn't become 'real' (er, a full character) until months later, and I puttered around writing (rather overdone and artsy) fanonish H/D ficlets in the quest to write My Ultimate Epic (never let it be said I don't aim high). I think eventually-- little by little-- after reading canon, reading lots more fanon, thinking about the universe-- I began to figure out what to say about the characters, and got so comfortable with Harry & Draco I could write other pairings. It got to the point where the only reason I wouldn't be able to write a pairing was just 'cause it didn't -work- for me (ie, I thought it was OOC for the character) rather than just... innate difficulty. So.
Maybe it just takes me awhile to get used to a 'verse, and I have to be so obsessed I'm willing to turn out what I later realize is crap-- the thing is, so many people do just churn out fic after fic in a range of fandoms, the quality seemingly unchanged. People get monogamous about a fandom and then switch and write something else as if it was perfectly normal 'cause they fell in love with a new character/pairing.
Well. I'm in love with a new character/pairing too-- this has happened before with Highlander, QaF, plus several little flings. It's just, okay....
Do people start with characters' voices or ideas (though really, I myself can't progress much until I have both). How do you -get- 'ideas' in a 'verse you're not automatically comfortable with? Do you even -need- ideas, or do you 'just write' and use cross-fandom-type standard plots/ideas (anything from PWP to 'character A goes blind' to 'character B suddenly gets jealous when character A goes on a date'). I mean, I don't write that no matter what fandom, so maybe that's a large factor that allows people to cross fandoms easier. Hm, also-- does loving a character/'verse/pairing directly correspond to being able to write them if you're already a fanfic writer in another fandom? Questions, questions :P
I was just thinking that as much as I really -wish- I could write non-HP stuff (well, I guess I really 'should' write more original stuff since I -could-, but ignoring that for a moment)... I have severe issues with writing in other fandoms. Even ones I fall in love with that have extremely hot and sympathetic leads (*cough*BLAIR*cough*)
First of all, whether or not I love or know the canon or fanon, I don't get ideas; secondly, no matter how much I love a character, I don't usually feel a sense of 'ownership', like I'm in touch with their voice myself. I mean, I've tried writing a Gundam Wing AU (right before HP, sometime in '02), and it was pretty much a joke-- and that's not to mention my pathetic teenage failure to do anything like a Star Trek fic. The best I could do was write an original (though not actually very original... or good) sci-fi fic that sort of had an Enterprise cameo. Yeah, that was as far as I could go... the starship -.-
My only positive experience was writing in the Peter Pan universe, but even then I don't have 'ideas', just an intimate sort of familiarity and comfort with the 'verse-- but I know lots of fictional 'verses better, and I can't imagine writing them. I dunno if this counts, but my other comfort-zone is fairy-tales-- I can write 'fanfic' to any myth or legend or fairy-tale, regardless of culture or plot or whatever. Funny how that works-- maybe there are just always unifying themes and archetypes obviously at work no matter what tale you pick. In actual fandoms, I'm always painfully aware of their idiosyncracy-- like, how I know nothing about cops, California teenagers or far-future Gundam pilots no matter how much I've seen on TV. I mean, clearly I know nothing about Wizarding English boys in boarding schools either, but somehow the fantastic setting lets me make things up a lot more easily.
(And obviously I could do 'research', but no amount of pure knowledge makes me comfortable enough to 'let go', y'know? I'd just be more aware of everything I need to remember and not screw up. -.-)
With HP, I started out with a character's voice-- Draco's-- that came to me out of the blue (I mean, I had Duo's voice in Gundam Wing, but it was a sort of sad fanon imitation-- this Draco may have been fanon, but he was my fanon, charged with emotion and meaning from the start). The Harry in my head didn't become 'real' (er, a full character) until months later, and I puttered around writing (rather overdone and artsy) fanonish H/D ficlets in the quest to write My Ultimate Epic (never let it be said I don't aim high). I think eventually-- little by little-- after reading canon, reading lots more fanon, thinking about the universe-- I began to figure out what to say about the characters, and got so comfortable with Harry & Draco I could write other pairings. It got to the point where the only reason I wouldn't be able to write a pairing was just 'cause it didn't -work- for me (ie, I thought it was OOC for the character) rather than just... innate difficulty. So.
Maybe it just takes me awhile to get used to a 'verse, and I have to be so obsessed I'm willing to turn out what I later realize is crap-- the thing is, so many people do just churn out fic after fic in a range of fandoms, the quality seemingly unchanged. People get monogamous about a fandom and then switch and write something else as if it was perfectly normal 'cause they fell in love with a new character/pairing.
Well. I'm in love with a new character/pairing too-- this has happened before with Highlander, QaF, plus several little flings. It's just, okay....
Do people start with characters' voices or ideas (though really, I myself can't progress much until I have both). How do you -get- 'ideas' in a 'verse you're not automatically comfortable with? Do you even -need- ideas, or do you 'just write' and use cross-fandom-type standard plots/ideas (anything from PWP to 'character A goes blind' to 'character B suddenly gets jealous when character A goes on a date'). I mean, I don't write that no matter what fandom, so maybe that's a large factor that allows people to cross fandoms easier. Hm, also-- does loving a character/'verse/pairing directly correspond to being able to write them if you're already a fanfic writer in another fandom? Questions, questions :P
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 04:09 pm (UTC)Basically, I've come to accept that there is something Deep And Powerful going on for me when I decide to write a pairing. It's only happened three times: Frodo/Sam, Jack/Ennis (Brokeback), and Harry/Draco, and all three times I was completely and utterly obsessed. It's like falling in love - it just consumes me to the point where, if I don't write, I'll explode. I have no idea what causes me to fall so hard in the first place (and conversely why I don't fall for other verses or pairings). It's something very personal and probably only semi-conscious. But it's a gift, really. The times I've been without an obsession have been some of the bleakest and most pointless-feeling in my life.
As far as putting pen to paper goes: my stories usually start with an extremely vivid mental image that just sort of comes to me out of the blue. Usually it's something rather mundane. My signature piece in the LotR fandom was a story called "Endurance Beyond Hope," which grew entirely out of a scene in which Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin are standing outside Brandy Hall at night in winter. I could see the whole thing so vividly - every detail. And once that was in my head, the story just kind of wrote itself.
Anyway. I try not to analyze it too much. It's a fragile and precious thing, I think. Instead, I now just surrender completely to these obsessions. Because I do know now that they end, and I want to make the most of them while they last.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 10:54 pm (UTC)I do get mental images when I actually get inspired... but unless I'm comfortable with that world, I can't imagine stuff within it. I mean, for a long time in HP I wasn't comfortable (hadn't even read canon for a year), so the kind of images I got were stuff like 'Draco outlined against the setting sun' :>
Maybe it is just obsession for me too-- that's certainly part of it, yet I'm completely capable of being obsessed without writing fanfic-- I was with Sandman and Star Trek and largely with Buffy. But thanks for the input! :D